A New Story
by Wren Da'ar
Summary: Faline, a young Kline raised by her Guardian Glog, has always had questions...and always felt certain things in her life. One day, her Guardian makes an announcement that will change her present and define her future. RR!
1. Chapter 1 Birth

This is somehow going to turn out to be a Jedi Apprentice story. It's been awhile since I've read them, so be gentle. Any characters that I use from George Lucas belong to him, including the Jedi Apprentice stuff. Anything else is my own. This just kind of flew from my fingers, so any ideas or whatever that you could throw to me would be appreciated. I don't plan on having any romances, unless you include those adolescent infatuations...but otherwise, I hope that you enjoy!

In the beginning...there was silence. The first interruption of that endless, seeming flow of nothingness was a steady beating, like a drum. A strong pulse...then a softer one. The rupture intrigued me. If there was this beating inside me...might there not be beating elsewhere? After all, the darkness had once filled and surrounded me as well. I opened myself and searched...and was flooded...the silence would never come again, perhaps not even when the relentless beating stopped.

The cold struck and tiny sacks near the beating filled, then emptied in a squall that startled even myself. I tried to stop, tried to embrace the silence that had once been so soothing, but had been destroyed with that first beat. Only I could not find it. Other sounds intruded on me, relentlessly filling me. Then the sound was accompanied by something else, something I had never even imagined before, as I had never imagined the beating. Light broke in upon my complete darkness, and I was blind. The tiny sacks--lungs--filled again and again I broke the silence. Then relief upon my battered senses. Forms, outlines, appeared in front of the blinding light, and I focused on them, desiring the blessed darkness that had once graced me.

Meaningless sounds struck me. In time, I would learn what it all meant, how it entered my consciousness, how I entered their's...but for now, I was merely a receptacle for the many catalysts that were slowly forming meaning of my environment. I would forever be affected by this moment. There would be no escaping it. Forever affected by this thing I learned to call Entrance.

In the old days, it was a painful process. Women would scream in agony as their life bled away, only to live and nourish the parasite that took so much from her. That was how I saw it, though they tried to teach me otherwise. They called it Birth, and said that it was a glorious process in which a great bond of love was formed. I wondered how they knew. None of them had ever birthed, as I hadn't. Tubes, chemicals, and incubators had long since taken the place of the messy procedure. Only the few, unlucky women who were far from technology, suffered anymore. Suffered and died.

My ears twitched, listening not only to the words, but also to the calm, patient beating. It was like a clock, measuring out the distance our lives would go, before stopping, declaring in finality the end of our existence in our present form. I had no doubt there would be more, when the beating stopped, for I had been before it began. Again, they tried to teach me otherwise. As Entrance or Birth welcomed us, so Death would usher us out. But perhaps they did not understand, as I did, that each existence has meaning, and each one is Progress.

"Faline, what chemical changes take place when mixing air and hydrogen?"

My ears twitched again, irritably. Must we go over this _again_? "An explosion." They--I suppose that I should call them teachers, I know that now--kept returning to these basic principles. Addition, subtraction, nouns, verbs, beats, rhythms, periodic table of elements, plotting, rock formation...Quite frankly, I was sick of it. What I really wanted to know was why we all looked different. Why we acted different. Take me and my Guardian, for example.

I am a Kline, at least, that's what they told me. Humanoid and bipedal. I have a tail and ears that stuck out at the top of my head, pointed. My eyes are almond shaped and slanty, blue with slitted pupils. I am slender and covered in short, tabby striped fur. Gray, black, and white. I have retractable claws in both my hands and feet. Which is part of the reason why I don't have footwear. Besides, the thick pads on my feet provide all the protection I need. I even have whiskers. My name was unfortunate for the resemblence to the human animals that wandered their planets. Felines, I think they're called.

My Guardian is a Glog. He walks on all fours, though he has an erect torso with arms projected from about where a human's shoulders would be. Except he doesn't have shoulders. He has seven fingers and is blind. He doesn't need eyes, I suppose. Giant ears pick up the high pitched sounds he emits from his fanged mouth, giving him an idea of the layout. Some might think him hooved...a lot of humans forget that Glogs are carniverous, their feet taloned and also catlike. My Guardian has golden fur, although the colors vary.

"Good. Now, who can tell me all the stable elements that have been found?"


	2. Chapter 2 Leaving

Hey! I came up with a summary this chapter! Aren't you proud of me? I'll put it in the summary slot so that you can all glory in my cleverness! And...I think I know where it's going to head to! I'll let you know...eventually... George Lucas owns Lucas Arts and everything connected to it and his great name. Everything else belongs to me. If you want to use or whatever, please ask first.

Yasona Black: Thanx for the review and encouragement. I appreciate it...even if we both don't quite know what's going on! ;)

I wandered down the hall of our living quarters, restless. My Guardian had kept me from school today. He had received a message of some importance. I didn't mind, except now I was unavoidably bored. Sighing, I returned to my sleeping quarters and knelt on the window seat, the Coruscant sun glaring down from above. I stretched my arms over my head, purring slightly in the warmth. My eyes slid half shut and my body slowly relaxed into a Meditation Stance.

Time passed. I didn't notice. All I felt was the warmth of the sun touching my skin...filling my soul...my heart thumping steadily, slowing as I slipped further into Meditation...vibrating my skin...each hair on my body... And then the sound came again, billions of beats sounding against my ear, merging into a great rushing river. I was calm and filled.

Seconds, minutes, maybe hours later, my door opened. I felt the whoosh of air against my back, slowly stirring my consciousness, alerting me. I felt the beating behind me and knew that I should separate myself. It was a struggle to surface. It always is. "You're going away." The calmness shattered around me and I leapt to my feet, spinning to face my Guardian.

"_What?_" I hissed. "I...I...I..." I didn't know what to say. Leave? Where? Why? When? I felt cold. The sun failed to warm me now. "Where?" I chose to ask after a moments deliberation.

"To the Jedi Temple." I blinked and he must have sensed my confusion. "While I admit that it has been somewhat unusual, you have been training under me for some time." He sighed. "I am old...and I have long since given up my lightsaber. But I remember the ways, the teachings...and I have imparted them to you, under the guise of a mere Guardian."

"Why?" I chose this time.

"You were born strong in the Force. Not unusual, I suppose, in one of your species." He chuckled. "As much as you hate to admit it, Klines have unusual likenesses to the humans cats--intuitive, quick, agile."

"Nine lives?" I asked drily. He smiled slightly.

"Continuing..." He sighed, then laughed mirthlessly. "Apparently I can impart the forms and such to those who are able to learn. But I...They wished to draw me back, I suppose, expose me again to the Force in the hopes that I would rescind my earlier decision." He turned his face slightly away from me. "The Force is dangerously unbalanced," he added in a whisper. I watched as the years suddenly seemed to weigh on him, making him appear very tired. "Are you ready?" he asked finally. Well, I guess that answered the when question. I looked around my room, wondering what exactly a Jedi in training would take with them. Thinking of the Jedi ideals, I decided that I wouldn't be taking very much with me. I gathered up some plainer clothes and looked at my Guardian.

"I'm ready."


	3. Chapter 3 The Zodiac

I wandered down the halls of the Jedi Temple. I had been here for a little over a month now. Things never changed here. I woke up in the morning and studied, since the mind was at its best in the morning. And then, when I was mentally drained, they made me go through the physical exercises and drills. And every night, before I went to bed, they made me meditate. Not that that part was difficult. I've always enjoyed meditation, though I wish I could do it with the warm sun on me.

"Faline, focus!" Sighing, I returned to the lesson on the different planets of the Sagittarius system. Ironically, the ancient zodiac signs affected accurately these different systems, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Gemini... I couldn't explain it, and I wish my teachers would. "Why, on the planet of Arrow, would you never tell a person that their father is fingerless and has a cold hearth?"

Such weird people... "Because Arrowans are excellent archers and implying that their father is fingerless means that he is unable to hunt and provide and telling them that he has a cold hearth is saying that he is sterile."

"Very good." The lecture continued, but I didn't keep paying much attention. How come there wasn't a sign of the cat? I knew there was a sign of the dog in one of the different, ancient cultures, but I couldn't remember a class. "For your homework, write up a possible mediation between a person from the Sagittarius constellation and the Taurus constellation regarding the ownership of property." I groaned and gathered up my things, heading for the cafeteria.

"Faline, time it is for you to be chosen." I blinked in surprise.

"Master Yoda?"

"Advanced your training is. Quick you are. Ready to serve you are." I think Master Yoda is getting a little old... "Old I am not," he replied with a disapproving glance at me. I smiled slightly. How did he do that?

"When will the trials be, Master Yoda?"

"Tomorrow. Early. Prepared you must be."

I observed him quietly. There were many other Apprentices who had been training and practicing since birth. Obi-wan was one of them. How had it come so quickly to this again? I bowed to him. "I am ready, Master Yoda."


End file.
